Historical Marker Program

General Douglas Hancock Cooper

Bryan County
Location: on OK-199, thirteen miles east of Madill in Fort Washita Cemetery
Material: Granite
Topics: American Indians; Government; Military; Territorial Period, 1861–1907; Westward Expansion, 1803–1861

General Cooper was appointed as the US Indian agent to the Choctaws in 1853 and to the Chickasaws in 1856. He consolidated the two agencies and moved them to Fort Washita. When the Civil War began, Cooper's friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, appointed him Choctaw-Chickasaw agent for the Confederacy. As commander of the Choctaw-Chickasaw Confederate mounted riflemen, he saw much action. He later was promoted to commander of the Indian Territory Military District, C.S.A., and was named Superintendent of Indian Affairs by President Davis. He died at Fort Washita in 1879 and is buried in an unmarked grave.